Everything I've read has said that DKs still retain the title (as of 5.3) for soloing, and only hunters and BrM monks were close. Rage-reaction is that the gap was made bigger with the recent hunter nerfs - no idea if it is true. Would love to know if this balance is changing as a result of the 5.4 changes.

However, have been wondering how good are Paladins compared to Death Knights - tanking, DPS and soloing.

Tanking, Paladins are the best overall, with some fights playing directly into DK strengths and making us OP. DPS, assuming equal gear and skill, Unholy should be blowing Ret out of the water. Soloing, there is no substitute. Blood will take the soloing gold every time the question is asked, until Blizzard takes out their giant Nerf Mjollnir and hits us with it. Twice.

Everything I've read has said that DKs still retain the title (as of 5.3) for soloing, and only hunters and BrM monks were close. Rage-reaction is that the gap was made bigger with the recent hunter nerfs - no idea if it is true. Would love to know if this balance is changing as a result of the 5.4 changes.

bm and sv hunters lose their interrupt abilities according to patchnotes. quite unwelcome for some encounters (either you cannot interrupt or you lose on buffs)

Tanking, Paladins are the best overall, with some fights playing directly into DK strengths and making us OP. DPS, assuming equal gear and skill, Unholy should be blowing Ret out of the water. Soloing, there is no substitute. Blood will take the soloing gold every time the question is asked, until Blizzard takes out their giant Nerf Mjollnir and hits us with it. Twice.

[empty space removed ~ Nyanmaru]

Unholy blowing ret out of the water? What game are you even playing? Seriously? Unholy is one of the lowest dps specs right now across the board on all different varying levels of gear. Ret is one of the top in every single gear level category. Unholy got nerfed again badly (which made absolutely no sense whatsoever) and ret got their sheath of light doubled which was HUGE. The only thing unholy still does good at is trash dps, that's about as good as it gets. Ret is DESTROYING unholy at the moment, its literally not even in the same ballpark.

Unholy blowing ret out of the water? What game are you even playing? Seriously? Unholy is one of the lowest dps specs right now across the board on all different varying levels of gear. Ret is one of the top in every single gear level category. Unholy got nerfed again badly (which made absolutely no sense whatsoever) and ret got their sheath of light doubled which was HUGE. The only thing unholy still does good at is trash dps, that's about as good as it gets. Ret is DESTROYING unholy at the moment, its literally not even in the same ballpark.

This is false. Unholy is middle of the pack along with Ret. neither specs are dominating anything, they're both competitive. Mage and Warlock have been the top spec since Unholy got nerfed.